


These People are my Home

by hotarubi_e



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Comfort, Fluff, Gen, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Insecurities, bits of drama, family bonding time, learning to accept who you are, please read it (no I'm not above begging. not at all), safe to say I'm nervous posting it, space fam helps small genius child, who am I kidding? everything I write has drama in it, written from my personal experience
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-01
Updated: 2017-03-01
Packaged: 2018-09-27 14:25:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10024763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hotarubi_e/pseuds/hotarubi_e
Summary: When Pidge first thought about telling their Voltron family that they were gender-neutral, it felt as though all the worlds and all the stars might implode in on them. But little did they realise, their rag-tag group of allies would be the ones to shine said worlds in colour. A colour called 'acceptance'.---I'm bad at summaries, I know. Pidge tells the group that they aren't a 'she' any longer, and the team does their best to comfort and support.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! So, I'm aware that I'm posting this when I reaallyyy should be working on You Are Music To My Eyes, but I just couldn't stop myself from writing this. I promise I'll carry on with that one straight away, I just had to get this one out first. 
> 
> Basically, not that long ago, I came to the realisation that I'm actually gender-fluid (Obviously I have been my entire life, but denial does WONDERS for putting off said realisations), and it's taken a fair bit of time to get used to it and accept all the little changes that come along with it. Even though nothing about ME has changed, what with the fact that I've been like this forever, there's been a lot of rather unruly emotions and weird little thoughts going on in my head over the last month or so. And I thought - what better way to deal with them and get them out of my noggin than by writing it? So I did. Pidge is one of my favourite characters ever, and I personally H/C that they ARE in fact gender-neutral, so it seemed a natural choice. I love them, and I wanted to work through everything I've felt and experienced recently through their eyes. 
> 
> I really hope you enjoy this, and I'd like to just add a little reminder that everything in this is purely from my own experience and response to my own realisation - it in no way reflects the experiences/thoughts/emotions of others at all.

This was it. This was the moment that everything would change for Pidge. They had been dreading it for months, weaving around the subject, going through all the motions just trying, _trying_ to pretend that nothing was wrong. Everything was normal and fine. 

 

_They_ were normal and fine. 

 

But they knew that was a lie. 

 

Everyone was staring at them, questioning looks flitting between the group, eyes too large and brows too creased as they watched Pidge stand before them, feet placed squarely on the ground. It was a grounding, they felt, that was too literal to reach their frame of mind. A breath eked out of their lips.

 

‘Pidge? Do you wanna tell us what’s wrong?’ Shiro. It was Shiro who spoke. Pidge dragged their eyes up from the table, meeting Shiro’s reluctantly as he watched her with a combination of trepidation and care. They cleared their throat, backtracking their feet across the tiles.

 

‘Um..’ they mumbled. It was the best they could do. No other sound, no words, wanted to come out.

 

‘Pidge?’ Lance.

 

‘Seriously, Pidge - you’re worrying us,’ Shiro again. 

 

‘Do you think she’s ill?’ Allura leaned across the table towards Shiro as she spoke, face concerned and attentive.

 

‘Don’t call me that!’

 

The words were out of their mouth before they could even register, and Pidge felt the blood drain from their face like sludge. Too late to go back now. 

 

‘Don’t.. call you what, Pidge?’ Allura’s face was frowning - Pidge hated the frown, they decided. Hated the way it carved through the beautiful features, marring them with doubt.

 

‘Oh god.. okay..’ Pidge rounded their shoulders, slowly making eye contact with everyone at the table. They were all there - Keith and Lance sat side by side to Pidge’s left, Hunk next to Shiro on their right, Allura and Coran standing by their sides. ‘So.. I have something I need to tell you all,’

 

‘Coulda fooled me..’ Keith mumbled, arms crossed over his chest. Pidge caught the moment Lance’s hand connected with the back of his head, admonishingly. 

 

‘Whatever you have to say, Pidge, we’re listening,’ Shiro stated, flicking his eyes disapprovingly over to Keith. Another breath. Pidge would never be ready - so why not just say it now?

 

‘I..’m not a ‘she’..’

 

A beat. And then another one. A third for good measure, and then a table full of confusion and eyebrows raised into hairlines. Amongst the mess Pidge heard one voice they could focus on. Shiro. Always Shiro.

 

‘Pidge - what do you mean?’

 

‘So, um.. obviously you all know now that..’ Their hands shook, nerves splicing through them like hot knifes. Sickness filled their stomach like lead, weighing them down. They were wrong - _broken._ ‘..t-that I may have disguised myself as a boy to enter the garrison..’ A uniform round of nods crossed the table. ‘And.. that once I came out to you all and told the truth, I didn’t go back to calling myself Katie.. Well.. I think that’s.. because.. uh.. I’m not ‘Katie’ anymore..’

 

‘Well, duh, we all _know_ that,’ Lance quipped, face flat and unimpressed. ‘You’re _Pidge,_ ’

 

‘No! That’s not what I meant.. I mean I’m not a girl. I’m not a boy, but I’m not a girl either.. I’m.. I’m broken..’

 

‘Not a girl, but not a boy?’ Coran’s voice filtered over to them, making them look up, unsure. The smile they found on his face was startling. ‘Are you saying that this isn’t normal on Earth?’

 

‘Huh?’

 

It appeared to be Allura’s turn to smile. ‘That’s perfectly normal on Altea, Pidge. A large proportion of the population had no gender,’

 

‘B-but surely that’s like.. they were just.. you know - _fully_ neutral? Like, physically?’

 

‘Oh no, no, no,’ Coran took a step closer, ears grinning. ‘We all have physical genders, number five - we’re not Bloomstrangs!’

 

‘..Bloom..?’

 

‘It doesn’t matter what Bloom-whatever’s are,’ Shiro interjected, sitting up taller in his seat. He was smiling too. Pidge felt as though their brain was coming undone. It wasn’t the reaction they had been expecting. ‘What matters is that you’re not broken, Pidge - this is a normal thing too,’

 

‘Have you.. _not_ heard of gender-neutral?’

 

That had been Keith. Everyone in the room turned their eyes to him, drawing a slight reddening from his cheeks. ‘What? I _read_ ,’

 

‘Sure, that’s why you had no idea who Miley Cyrus is,’

 

‘Lance, why the hell would I _want_ to know who Miley Cyrus is?’

 

‘Then why do you know what ‘gender-neutral’ is, but not _important_ pop icons?!’

 

The red on his face deepened. Pidge felt their own face fall into confusion - Lance had a good point. 

 

‘W-well.. there _may_ have been a point a couple years ago where I..’ he cleared his throat. ‘..where I considered the possibility for myself.. Obviously I realised it didn’t fit..’

 

‘Wh- _seriously?!’_

 

‘Is someone gonna explain to me what the hell gender-neutral is?!’ Pidge yelled, not bothered to interrupt. Guilty faces turned to them, shoulders stiff and hunching.

 

’S-sorry, Pidge..’ Lance mumbled, looking surprisingly lost for his usual self. ‘Um, so gender-neutral is like, you don’t have a gender? You’re neither male nor female. There are other things too, but.. maybe you’re that?’

 

Pidge considered it. No gender. It sounded right, for the way they felt, but it was terrifying all the same. To remove something that they’d had their entire life and begin again. To rewrite their identity. They didn’t want it. 

 

‘People who are gender-neutral often call themselves ‘they’ or ‘them’,’ Keith continued, leaning forwards in his seat. ‘Not always, but I think from what I read, they’re the most commonly used ones,’

 

‘I.. already use them for myself,’

 

Keith raised his hand. ‘Well there you go then - that probably fits,’ he smiled, and it was so soft, Pidge felt themselves leaning into it, wanting to soak it up. The comfort it promised was heavenly.

 

‘But..’ they muttered, hands wringing. ‘..what if I change my mind?’

 

‘Dude, it’s not like you’re doing anything permanent,’ Hunk grinned, stepping towards them, away from his seat. Pidge’s eyes shot wide as saucers, pupils dancing. ‘Anyway, gender’s like sexuality, right? It can always change. Just ‘cause you’re this now doesn’t mean you always will be,’

 

Pidge wasn’t a hundred percent sure how much truth was in Hunk’s words, but they decided it didn’t matter - it was a comfort, and something to hold onto in the storm of their mind. A safe haven; an _out._ No decision was permanent - they could go back, and back, and back again until they found out who they were. Nothing was set in stone. A smile graced their lips, one filled with relief and the promise of happiness ahead - they really wanted to believe there was.

 

‘Do you feel a little bit better now, Pidge?’ Shiro asked, snapping Pidge from their reverie. They opened their mouth, readying to answer, when Keith’s voice cut back across.

 

‘Jeez, give them some time, Shiro - they only just told us,’

 

_They. Them._ Keith had called Pidge ‘them’. 

 

The sob that broke their lips was not one of horror. It was one of joy - joy at their acceptance, joy at their pride. And most of all, most importantly to Pidge, joy at the love they could see painting each face that stared up at them, colouring the world in a new, vibrant light they had never thought imaginable. They turned everything from the dull grey of hiding into the warm umbers of a world where Pidge would never have to hide again.

 

It was before Pidge managed to get these thoughts out of their head and into words that they felt the six pairs of arms wrap awkwardly around them. They breathed in deep, closing their eyes against the burn of happiness stinging at the edges. _That_ was why they considered those people ‘home’. 

**Author's Note:**

> I really hope everyone liked it! It's very different from stuff I've ever written before, so I'd really love to know what you all thought! Comments would be wonderful, and kudos make me squee with happiness.
> 
> Come yell at me about Voltron! https://www.tumblr.com/blog/hotarubi-e  
> (especially Klance. Ngl, they're my (space)jam)


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